1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to a mechanism for securing and removing a liquid molding system (LMS) valve to a beverage flavor/ingredient dispensing manifold. The present disclosure provides for easier removal and installation of such LMS valves.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, LMS valves are very difficult to change. As service technicians typically have to remove a large number of parts to gain access to the LMS valves, it becomes costly and time consuming to change and reinstall LMS valves. Since LMS valves need to be cleaned at regular intervals, and certainly replaced on an annual basis, owners of beverage dispensing system that include LMS valves find the cleaning and/or annual replacement to be costly in terms of both service costs and the costs involved in taking the beverage dispenser device out of service for a long period of time to allow for the replacement of the LMS valves.
Conventional LMS valves are disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2011/0073615 and 2011/0073618, both of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto.
The present disclosure overcomes the costly and time consuming issues related to the cleaning and/or replacement usually encountered with conventional LMS valves by allowing the rapid removal of the LMS valves for replacement or cleaning without the need for tools. This, in turn, means that owners will no longer require the assistance of a service technician, as a restaurant employee should be able to readily replace the LMS valves. The benefits of the present disclosure are provided by a novel insert that holds the LMS valves in place by, preferably, a twisting and locking action. The novel insert can be readily manually removed without the need for tools, thus making the removal of the LMS valves rapid and capable to be performed without the need of a skilled and expensive service technician.